


Let Us Live And Love

by youjik33



Category: Night at the Museum (2006 2009)
Genre: Angst, First Time, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 19:11:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2822975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youjik33/pseuds/youjik33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jed's hand touched his in the darkness. He'd taken his gloves off, and his skin was warm and calloused, and when Octavius twined their fingers together and squeezed, Jed squeezed back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Us Live And Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mtgat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtgat/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Будем жить и любить](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12549272) by [Rainy_Elliot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainy_Elliot/pseuds/Rainy_Elliot)



> Written as a treat for mtgat. This story takes place during and after the end of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.

Larry apologized about a thousand times for having to ship them back home in the crate ("I have no problem buying tickets but you guys don't have passports or anything"), but really, it wasn't so bad. The crate was a little roomier without Ahkmenrah, and the sound of the plane engine soothing (and mostly drowning out Laaa, crunching on packing peanuts). Hunkered down into the fur lining of Attila's hat, with Jedediah pressed flush against his side, Octavius felt drowsy and comfortable, but the longer he lay there the more his mind drifted, and the more his mind drifted the more he started to worry. He thought about things like whether the endless sleep they faced counted as death, whether they had souls, whether he would see Jedediah again. 

He imagined meeting the other man in the sunlit meadows of the Elysian Fields, hair glowing like gold and eyes as blue as the sky, and couldn't quite stifle a small sound that escaped from his throat, something that was definitely not a choked-back sob.

Jed's hand touched his in the darkness. He'd taken his gloves off, and his skin was warm and calloused, and when Octavius twined their fingers together and squeezed, Jed squeezed back.

\------------------------------------------------

Larry set them on the ledge of the Roman panorama but lingered just inside the door, as though he wasn't sure he'd quite gotten their goodbyes right. "Jed," he said, and then "Octavius," and then, "You guys, you have things you should probably talk about, you realize that?"

"Yes, Larry," Octavius said. "In _private_."

"He'll be okay," Jed said, waving after Larry as they watched him go. "He's stronger than he thinks he is."

"Yes." Octavius took off his helmet, ran a hand through his hair, cleared his throat. "He's also right. There's something I should tell you, Jedidiah. Perhaps I should have told you years ago."

"I know," Jed said. "No need to be so nervous. I've known for a while now."

"You have?"

"I ain't as dumb as I seem, you know. I guess I've been pretending to be clueless because I didn't want anything to change." Jed scuffed the wood with the toe of his boot. "Shucks. I ain't too good at this whole sharing my feelings thing. But what we've had these past few years, it's been pretty good. What I'm getting at is, I was scared of messing it up, and I reckon we're past that now."

"We are?" Octavius asked hoarsely. His throat seemed to have gone dry.

Jed shrugged. "Aren't we?" He looked over his shoulder, where a line of centurions stood at attention, motionless and unaware. "This is the end, ain't it?"

"Jedediah," Octavius said. 

"Octavius," Jedediah replied. He put his hand on Octavius' cheek, grinned the shit-eating grin that had made Octavius' heart do somersaults for years. "Shut up."

Octavius shut up, because Jed's mouth was suddenly on his. His helmet clattered to the ground as he pushed Jed up against the wall, digging his fingers into the other man's hair. The kiss was unpracticed and urgent, all teeth and tongues and bottled-up desperation, and they didn't stop until they were both breathless and shaking.

" _Soles occidere et redire possunt_ ," Octavius murmured against Jed's neck, " _Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, nox est perpetua una dormienda._."

"I have no idea what in the hell you just said," Jed said, his arms around Octavius' waist.

"It's a poem," Octavius said. "By one of our most famous poets. 'Give me a thousand kisses, a hundred more, another thousand, and another hundred--'"

"I don't think we got time for that," Jed said. 

"I suppose not." 

"You're still the one I run to," Jed blurted, face going red, not meeting Octavius' eyes. "The one that I belong to. You're still the one I want for life."

It took Octavius a second to realize he was quoting something. "Is that one of your native poets?"

"Shania Twain," Jed said roughly. "And I think she's actually Canadian, but it still applies. Damn it." He scrubbed at his eyes with his shirtsleeve. "I swore I wouldn't cry in front of you." 

"I think no less of you," Octavius said. He leaned in, intending another kiss, but instead he ended up pressing his forehead against Jedidiah's. They stood like that for what felt like an age, until they both felt the familiar weight of the impending sunrise. Octavius put his helmet back on; Jed picked up his fallen hat, brushed dust from the brim.

"You'd better get back to your side," Octavius said.

"Nah, I don't think so. Someone can move me back later. I'm gonna stay right here." Jed gave him a crooked grin. "I ain't quittin' you now."

"Nor I you."

There was nothing more to say. Octavius put his hand on the hilt of his sword. Jed crossed his arms over his chest. Side by side, they faced the sunrise.

\------------------------------------------------

(It was six months before Larry was ready to visit the museum again. It was a visit that ended with him sitting across from Dr. McPhee's desk while the other man counted slowly backwards from ten in an effort to keep himself from going into a violent rage.

"Tell me again," McPhee said, eyes fixed imploringly at the heavens, "Why you felt the need to fiddle with the miniatures. This isn't a toy store, you know. This isn't FAO Schwarz. Did you see a giant keyboard in the lobby? Because there isn't one." 

"I just thought," Larry muttered, "They were too far apart. They would've wanted to be closer together. And facing each other. So I just moved them a little bit. I don't see how it hurt anything." 

"They don't _want_ anything. They're resin figures."

"I know," Larry sighed. "I know.") 

\------------------------------------------------

They woke with a start, almost an explosion, as though the abrupt end of three years of sleep had given them a burst of energy. The museum was more alive than ever, and Jed and Octavius danced for what seemed like hours before collapsing in a laughing heap next to the turntable. Jed nudged Octavius with his elbow, pointed up to the mezzanine where Lancelot was dancing awkwardly and alone.

"Check it out, your boyfriend's here."

"He's not my boyfriend," Octavius said defensively. " _You're_ my boyfriend. Or-- is that not how we left things?"

"Now that I think on it, maybe it was. I reckon you'll have to refresh my memory."

It was easy enough to slip away; if Ahkmenrah saw them go and smiled knowingly, neither of them noticed. Moments later they had climbed under the concealing leaves of a potted fern and were kissing against its trunk.

"We at a hundred kisses yet?" Jed asked.

"I lost count," Octavius replied. "Why aren't we naked?"

"Dunno. I like the way you think."

They spread Octavius' cape across the pebbles lining the pot, and within minutes Jed was spitting into his hand, slicking himself up.

"You don't know the meaning of the word 'foreplay', do you," Octavius asked.

"What, you want me to slow down?" Jed asked as he pushed Octavius' thighs apart.

"Oh, gods, no," Octavius said.

Later, tracing absent-minded circles on Jed's bare chest with his index finger, Octavius was feeling reflective. "I am not, generally speaking, a man prone to dwell on feelings of regret," he said. "Yet I have to admit that was something we should have been doing a long time ago."

Jed mumbled something sleepy and incoherent, but perked up when he noticed a pair of denim-clad legs visible through the gaps of the fern's drooping leaves. He scrambled to his feet and hurried to the lip of the pot. "Hey!" he called. "Larry! Long time no see, Gigantor!"

"Jed?" Larry asked, kneeling. "What are you doing down there- _Oh._ "

Mortified, Octavius covered himself with the first thing his hand touched, which happened to be Jed's hat. He gave Larry a sheepish salute, but Jed seemed utterly unconcerned with his own nakedness.

"Maybe I should talk to you later," Larry said. "When you've got some pants on. But, uh, congratulations on-- whatever this is. I was always rooting for you. Even if I wasn't entirely sure you guys were anatomically correct."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" Jed called as Larry excused himself. "Aw, come on!" He turned back, pouting. "You think it's because my guns don't fire? ...what the hell are you doing to my hat?" 

"Never mind," Octavius said, tossing it aside. "And get back over here. Nobody cares if your guns don't fire, but you've really got to learn how foreplay works if this is to continue."

"Then teach me, querido," Jed said with a smile, leaning in for a kiss. "A thousand times, and a hundred more."

**Author's Note:**

> The Latin that Octavius quotes is from one of Catullus' more famous love poems, but the lines he gives in English are actually the subsequent lines in the poem. The translation of the Latin:
> 
> Suns may set, and suns may rise again:  
> but when our brief light has set,  
> night is one long everlasting sleep.


End file.
